Making Internet of Things (IoT) Smarter with Java Embedded

Apple iPhone hits trough of disillusionment

Ah, how sweet. As every engineer worth their salt knows, there comes a time in the product lifecycle of a high tech gadget known as the "Trough of Disillusionment", where public opinion comes crashing down on a once high and lofty cool gizmo.

The rejection of Google Voice,
potentially a killer app for
smartphones, should prove that
Apple doesn't care about its
customers.
The App Store approval process
seems capricious and arbitrary.
Spend time and money to develop
an application only to have it
denied for reasons nobody can
quite articulate in advance.

Poor iPhone developers. How quickly they discover that the grass is not all that much greener over on their multitouch device side. Come back to Java ME development. There's no cabal preventing you from uploading your Java ME game or app to GetJar.com. There's no big brother telling you Thou Must NOT Sell Your Java ME Mobile App. Who needs that?

No need to worry about how Java is doing. Java ME generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Sun last year (in a _down_ economy) and is on about 2.5 billion devices so far and still growing vs. iPhone which is on only the tens of millions of devices.

Besides, it's more important what Larry Ellison thinks about Java and here's what he's been saying:

"Oracle CEO Larry Ellison wants to see Java on a lot more devices, particularly mobile phones and Netbooks. Whether or not the combined Oracle/Sun builds such devices, Ellison expects to pour more money and research into Java's development.

'I think you'll see us get very aggressive in developing Java apps for things like telephones and Netbooks,' said Ellison"

So, don't fall for the diminishing hype around the iPhone. It's not as friendly to developers as many people think, while Java is strong.